Guide to . . 

THE Irish 
Industrial Village 

AND BLARNEY CASTLE 



The Exhibit of 



The IH<;h 

Industries Association 



President. THE COUNTESS OF ABERDEEN 



** 



ire QO ^rdgh 



ft 



PUBLISHED BY AT THE 

The Irish Village Book Store Columbian 

EXPOSITION 

Price, 25 Cents. Chicago. 



Tara's Hall, 



Irish • 
• Village. 

Miniature copies of the Antique Irish Brooches, Brace- 
lets, etc., copied from the originals in possession of 
" The Royal Irish Academy," " Trinity College," 
etc., including the celebrated 

• • TARA BROOCH, • • 

ST. PATRICK'S BELL BROOCHES, 

ST. PATRICK'S BELL CHARMS, 

in fine gold and silver ; 

BRIAN BORU HARP BROOCHES, 
ANTIQUE INITIAL LETTER BROOCHES, 

from the Book of Kells ; 

THE "CUIMNIG-" (REMEMBER) BRACELET, 
TORC BROOCHES, Etc. 




Irish Village Commemorative Spoons. 

The ''Tara" Spoon. The ''Brian Boru" Spoon. 

The ''Shamrock" Spoon. The "Irish Village" Spoon. 

All in fine silver. Dublin Hall Mark. 
Every article in good taste, and copied from the antique. 

Edmond Johnson, 

ART JEWELER, 

And manufacttirer of the copies of the Antiquities of Ireland, 
exhibited in the British Section, Dept. H, Group 98. 

IRISH ADDRESS: 1^110 1 

94 & 95 Grafton and 46 Wicklow St., LIUBLIN. 



Arnott & Co. 



DUBLIN, . . 
• . IRELAND 



SILK MERCERS, 
y\^ WAREHOUSEMEN, ^f^ 

DRAPERS, ETC., 



k », ^ 



^ ^ 



sk' a » » 



m * ^ 



£ « ? 




■~ » -ge « m m m m m m , w ' m ^m 

^ f ' M S P P f I P 'f I 



Desire to inform \ i-.: -, t ) this Exhibition and those who intend going 
to Ireland, that the} have for the past hfty-one years been engaged in 
selHng Irish Manufacxures, and ihat ihey hold at present a magnificent 
stock of Irish Industries, including the following : 

POPLINS, LACES, AND LACE HANDKERCHIEFS", 
BALBRIGGAN HOSE; 

BLARNEY, Donegal, Athlone, and Lucan tweeds 
AND serges; 

BALLINAKEL flannels, blankets, AND RUGS; 

Belfast Linens, Shirts, Collars, and Skirtings; 

DRAWING-ROOM, DINING-ROOM, AND BED-ROOM FURNITURE; 

Silk Handkerchiefs. Hats. Shoes, Etc. 



DUBLIN, 



IRELAND 



Arnott & Co. 



The Beverage 

OF THE WORLD. 
SocHRlNVt Aromatic G 'nger Ale 

Genuine brand. „ " , 

^^ Beware of 

I N USE EVERYWHERE. . ?"""'*"* 

■ Imitations. 

|\|0n intoxicating. 
Gained 31 gold and prize medals. 
Effervescing and exhilarating. 
Refreshing and stimulating. 

A Thirty-one 

ROMATIC AND SPARKLING. coid 

and 

Like champagne. f''-'^^ 

■— Medals. 

Entirely free from alcohol. 



B}^ Special Appointment to His Royal Highness the Prince 

OF Wales. 
By Royal Letters Patent to the Viceregal Court Ireland. 
Purveyors to Her Majesty's Houses of Parliament. 



Cantrell & Cochrane, 

DUBLIN AND BELFAST. 



iVlcDirney & C>o., Limited, 

KEEP THE ... 

LARGEST GENERAL STOCK 
OF FIRST-CLASS LINENS 

IN IRELAND. 

FOR MODliBATE PRICES, SUPERIOR QUALITY, BLEACH, AND DESIGN, 
THEIR LINENS ARE UNRIVALED. 

THE FOLLOWING ARE SOME OF THE LEADING PATTERNS OF 



TABLE CLOTHS 



WITH NAPKINS 

TO MATCH. 



Ferns and Groups of Ferns. 

Cypress and Spot. 

Early English (Fuchsia). 

Vine and Shamrock. 

New Alhambra. 

Indian. 

Oak and Mistletoe. 

Rose, Shamrock, and Thistle. 

Laocoon. 

Moire Antique. 

Other Patterns 



Vine and Stripes. 
Antient Egyptian. 
Game Birds. 
Vase. 

Fox Hunting and Coursing. 
Nasturtiums-Double Center. 
Chinese. 
Sunflower. 
Fleur de Lis. 

Queen's Coronation Robe. 
Equally Choice. 



LINEN GOODS OF ANY KIND MADE TO ORDER, AND ALL GOODS FOR 
ENGLAND, FRANCE, AMERICA, OR INDIA CAREFULLY PACKED. 



Irish Cambric Handkerchief Department. 

Ladies' Handkerchiefs, 2s 6d, 3s, 3s 6d, 4s, 4s 6d, 5s, 6s, to IDs per doz. 
Gentlemen's Handkerchiefs, 3s 9d, 4s 6d, 5s, 5s 6d, 6s, 7s, 8s, to 14s per doz. 
Ladies' Hemstitched Handkerchiefs, 3s 9d, 4s 6d, 5s, 6s, 7s, 8s, 9s, to 16s per doz. 
Gentlemen's Hemstitched Handkerchiefs, 6s,6s6d, 7s, 8s, lOs, 12s, 14s, to 20s per doz. 
Fancy and Embroidered Handkerchiefs, 2s, 2s 6d, 3s, 4s 6d, 6s, 8s, IDs, to 36s per doz. 



Irish 

Poplins ' 
in all 
Shades. 



Hibernian House, 

14 to 18, Aston's Quay, 
DUBLIN. 



Jllfred Manning 

grafton street, 
Dublin. 

Robe Maker and Furrier • • 

TO 
H. R. H. THE PRI^XESS OF WALES, 
HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN OF ROUMAXIA 

(SPECIAL BREVET), 

HER GRACE THE DUCHESS OF EEIXSTER, 

HER GRACE THE DUCHESS OF MOXTROSE. 

THE MARCHIOXESS OF LOXDOXDERRY, 

THE COUNTESS OF ABERDEEN, 

THE COUNTESS SPENCER, 

THE COUNTESS OF ZETLAND, Etc. 



Laces, Silks, Velvets, Mantles, Furs. 

Underclothing of purely Irish, mannfacture, 
and equal to finest French Avork. 

. . MILLINERY • • 

COURT, BALL, AND DINNER GOWNS. 

Celebrated for 

Trousseaux and Indian outfits. 

Designs, Sketches, and Patterns 

with estimates, forwarded to all parts of the world free 
of charee. 



GUIDE TO 
THE IRISH INDUSTRIAL VILLAGE 

AND 

BLARNEY CASTLE. 




BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE IRISH INDUSTRIAL VILLAGE 
IN MIDWAY PLAI5ANCE. 




Come and Kiss the Blarney Stone. 



M.LJ.Qriffia 

2 Ap'02 




^^- - - ' ' ^ 



Ground Floor 
Plan. 



10 5 



Jublic Entrance 

Scale. "'^''''''' 

30 40 50 

I • I I 



OFFICIALS 

OF THE 



Irish Industrial Village. 



president: 

the countess of aberdeen. 



ADVISORY committee: 

THE EARL OF ABERDEEN. 

MR. T. BAKER. 

MR. J. J. EGAN. 

MR. W. J. HYNES. 

MR. A. SHUMAN, BOSTON. 

MR. P. J. SEXTON, Chicago. 

MR. MELVILLE E. STONE, CHICAGO. 

MR. JAMES SULLIVAN, CHICAGO. 

MR J. R. WALSH, CHICAGO National Bank. 

Along with any tnembers of the Dublin Executive or Chicago Committee of the Irish 
Industries Association who jnay be in Chicago from time to time. 



manager: 

mrs. peter white. 



MUSICAL DIRECTOR AND HARPIST! 

MISS JOSEPHINE SULLIVAN, 
Professor of the Harp at the Academy, Dublin. 



ASSISTANT manager: 

MR. JOHN ALLEN. 



SECRETARY OF THE ASSOCIATION 

MR. CHARLES HATFIELD. 



architects: 

MR. J. J. EGAN, Chicago. MR. LAURENCE MCDONNELL, Dublin. 



All cofnmunications regarding the Village to be addressed to Mrs. White., in 
care of Lady Aberdeenyh-ish Industrial Village., World' s Fair., Chicago. 



GUIDE TO THE 

Irish Industrial Village 

AND Blarney Castle, 



THE EXHIBIT OF 



The Irish Industries Association 



WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION, CHICAGO. 



President, The Countess of Aberdeen. 



^^(^xve go gragly*'' 



published by the 

IRISH VILLAGE BOOK STORE. 

1 80-.. 



Copyright, 1893. 




^ PRmTERS. "^ 



f. 



\^ 



Guide to the Irish Industrial Village. 



The entrance to the Irish Village has been copied from 
the north doorway to the chapel bnilt by Cormac, the bishop 
king of Munster, in the early part of the twelfth century, 
which forms part of the wonderful group of ecclesiastical' 
buildings, the ruins of which stand on the Rock of Cashel 
(the word is derived from caiseal — a stone fort), the County 
Tipperary, and of which a fine complete model will be found 
within the village. These ruins are beautifully described by 
the late Mr. Jewitt, in an essay on the remains at Cashel, as 
follows: 

From the midst of a fertile plain in the southern part of the county 
of Tipperary rises abruptly the immense mass of limestone known as 
the Rock of Cashel, and which, crowned as it is by lofty and venerable 
ruins, forms a conspicuous landmark to the surrounding country for 
many miles. 

On nearer approach it increases in grandeur and interest. The 
town lies at its foot, and the small whitewashed hovels which are 
nestled under it serve to give interest and contrast to the scene. The 
rock is inaccessible on all sides except the south, where it is defended by 
a gateway. On entering within this gateway, and while standing on 
the green sward at the west end of the building, it is impossible to 
describe the feelings which crowd upon the imagination; the gray, hoar, 
and solemn and melancholy-looking ruins seem in their mute eloquence 
like spirits of the past standing in the present, silent and yet speaking. 
The ruined cathedral, the shattered castle, and the weather-beaten 
cross, all raised thoughts which it is not possible to express, and when 
all these are seen by the light of the setting sun, shining from behind 
clouds over the distant Galtese, the effect is beyond anything that can 
be conceived. 

The doorway chosen by the architect, Mr. McDonnell, for 
the entrance of the Irish Village is a singularly fine one. It 
is round-arched, of five orders, springing from detached 
shafts, and is surmounted by a high, projecting canopy, 
divided into panels by perpendicular bands, enriched with 

(11) 



12 

zigzag mouldings, and rosettes, and carved heads. Passing 
through this doorway, with all its associations of the old da3^s 
of the MacCarthys, the O'Conors, and the O'Brians, we enter 
the cool cloisters of the far-famed Muckross x\bbey, with its 
tree standing in the midst, bringing to our minds not only 
the thought of the beautiful, picturesque ruins from which 
this reproduction is copied, surrounded by its graves of the 
heroes of bygone days, but also of the exquisite scenery of 
the surrounding district of Killarney, its mountains, its lakes, 
its islands. 

But the Irish Village at the World's Fair is nothing if it is 
not practical, and the visitor can not be allowed to muse in 
the cloisters of Muckross; and so, having provided himself with 
a guide, he is ushered into the first of the cottages where the 
inhabitants of this busy little community ply their industries. 

And here by the turf-fire over which the potato-pot is 
hanging can be watched the making of many of the different 
kinds of lace and crochet-work which is manufactured in 
Ireland. Ellen Aher trained at the Presentation Convent 
at Youghal County, makes the beautiful needle-point lace 
which is so highly prized by those who are its happy possess- 
ors; Kate Kennedy illustrates the making of applique lace 
as it is done in the cottage homes of Carrickmacross, and 
Mary Flynn does the same for the much admired fine crochet 
work made by the poor women around Clones, in County 
Monaghan, and which is already much appreciated in Amer- 
ica; Ellen Murph}^ shows how the pretty light Limerick 
lace is made, which is regaining its popularity since Mrs. 
Vere O'Brien and other ladies and gentlemen have set to 
work to improve the designs; Bridget McGinley works at 
her old-fashioned wheel in the next cottage, preparing the 
Avool for Patrick Fagan from Donegal to weave into those 
delightful homespuns whose merits have been found out of 
late years by the fashionable world, as well as by the sports- 
man and athlete; Maggie Dennehy, who talks real Irish, 
also sits near by and shows how Miss Fitzgerald has taught 
the women of Valencia Island, Count}^ Kerry, to earn their 
livelihood by knitting. 

The " TeacJi-boinne" or dairy, next engages our atten- 
tion, and here we find Johanna Doherty, Kate Barry, and Maria 



13 

Connolly showing ns all the delights of a well-trained dairy- 
maid's profession, and what dainty and appetizing results can 
be turned out by a deft pair of hands with the aid of the 
convenient recently-introduced dairy utensils in comparison 
with the older-fashioned methods, which are also illustrated. 
A great effort has latel}^ been made in Ireland to improve and 
develop the butter-making industry, with very promising 
results. The Hon. Horace Plunkett, M. P., one of the active 
members of the Irish Industries Association, has taken a 
hand in this work. The three dairy-maids at the Village 
have been trained at the Munster Dairy School, an excel- 
lent institution near Cork, where all branches of scientific 
agriculture are taught, to the great benefit of the people. 

Mary Fagan makes torchon lace on a pillow, and Mary 
Cosgrove from Bagnalstown, where Mrs. Edward Ponsonby 
has founded a centre for the making of embroideries, displays 
the making of the work to which they have been trained; in 
another of these cottages, with their quaint, old-fashioned 
furniture and open roof, will be found a photograph store, 
from whence many a memory of Ireland and its beauties 
can be carried away. 

The bog-oak-carving industry is one well known to the 
tourist in Ireland, and is illustrated in the village, both in 
process of making and in its fully finished state, at the 
Darra-bochta store presided over by Miss Goggin of Dublin, 
who has also a variety of beautiful specimens of the green 
Galway marble jewelry. 

Michael Nicholas, too, shows the results that are being 
reaped from the various wood-carving and metal-working 
classes set on foot in Ireland by the Home Arts and Indus- 
tries Association, thus providing a paying and profitable occu- 
pation for the boys and men as well as the women and girls. 

And then comes Blarney Castle. Details concerning the 
traditions of this well-known place and its stone are given 
further on in this Guide, and we content ourselves therefore 
with saying that while the interior of the castle has been set 
apart as for living and sleeping rooms for the village workers, 
a winding staircase is provided for the visitors who desire to 
kiss the magic stone and to get " a view of all Ireland " from 
the battlements, where a relief map, kindly loaned by Sir 



14 

Patrick Keenan and made by Mr. T. W. Conway, B. A., of 
Dublin, will give to visitors an accurate idea of the surface 
and extent of the country. 

Any bad results from the fatigue of the ascent and descent 
have been provided against by the " Tigosda," presided over 
by Mr. Ryan at the foot of the staircase, where he is entirely 
willing to refresh the hungry and thirsty climbers. They 
will then feel prepared to visit the " Sheeppa,'' where Miss 
Mayne, and Miss Robinson, and Miss Keane will show speci- 
mens of all manner of cottage industries, and not only 
lace and embroideries of many kinds, but hosiery and under- 
clothing, woollens and baskets from Letterfrack, and we know 
not what besides. But the round is not yet complete. 
There is the Village Music Hall, where Miss Josephine Sul- 
livan, the youthful professor of the harp, from the Dublin 
Academy of Music, discourses sweet music on the national 
instrument with a sympathetic touch such as would surely 
bring joy to the spirit of her patriot father, the late A. M. 
Sullivan; and in company with her we find many sweet 
singers of Ireland's national airs, and, needless to say, the Irish 
piper and the jig dancers. And then, too, there is Tara's Hall, 
where Mr. Edmond Johnson's (of Dublin) interesting Celtic 
jewelry is to be seen in the making and in the finished state — 
models of the Tara brooch and the fibula and other delicate 
emblems which have been reproduced by this gentleman's 
zeal on behalf of the antiquities of his country. The model 
of the ancient Celtic cross erected in a grassy corner of the 
village square, the loan from Messrs. Colles' marble works 
at Kilkenny, must also be visited, bringing to mind the fact 
of the early civilization and art of Ireland, thus showing, 
even in those far-away days, how full of skill, delicate 
refinement, and artistic taste were her people. 

Lyra-ne-grena, or "The Sunny Nook," is the name which 
has been given to the cottage standing opposite to the castle, 
where Lady Aberdeen has her abode when at the village, and 
in whose rooms may be found specimens of beautiful old Irish 
furniture, a lovely mantel-piece from an old Dublin house, 
old Irish prints, books on Ireland presented by Lad}'- Fergu- 
son, Miss Margaret Stokes, and Mrs. O'Connell, and by Messrs. 
Sealy, Bryers, and Walker, for Lady Aberdeen's village 



15 

library. In Lady Aberdeen's absence, Mrs. Peter White, the 
widow of the late Honorable Secretary of the Irish Indus- 
tries Association, who organized this village, and whose loss 
is so deeply lamented, acts as her representative and lives in 
this cottage, which is copied from one at Rnshbrook, near 
Queenstown. 

Before leaving finally, a visit must be paid to the village 
museum, where a very fine set of photographs of Irish antiq- 
uities, by Lord Dunraven, arranged and published by Miss 
Margaret Stokes, the well-known antiquarian, are hung; 
besides many other objects of interest to Irish hearts which 
will be lent from time to time during the World's Fair. And 
surely, surely it is not necessary to suggest that no visitor 
with Irish sympathies will depart without having set foot on 
Irish turf, and without carrying away a native blackthorn as 
a memento of this bit of " Ould Ireland " in the New World! 




O^AJ>U ^G.Kj2.dL 



CJL^y<_ 



The Irish Industries Association, 

(INCORPORATED.) 



The Irish Industries Association, which has undertaken 
this reproduction of an Irish Village at the World's Fair, was 
formed by the Countess of Aberdeen in 1886, during the 
period that the Earl of Aberdeen was Viceroy, with the 
following objects: 

" To organize the Home, Cottage, and other Industries of 
Ireland, and to bring the various centres of these industries 
into communication with one another. 

" To make arrangements whereby good designs may be 
brought within the reach of workers in all parts of Ireland. 

" To collect and to circulate in Ireland information as to 
Home or Cottage Industries carried on in other countries, 
and as to suitable markets for Irish work. To promote the 
establishment of local centres and committees, and to help 
and advise generally. To facilitate the exhibition and sale of 
work, and the provision of the best implements and material 
at wholesale prices. 

" To make arrangements with the carrying companies for 
the speedy transit of goods at the lowest possible rates. 

" To foster the use of all good Irish manufactures, and the 
production for home use of such articles as can be conven- 
iently made in the homes of the people. 

" To forward, as far as possible, the improvement and 
development of existing Irish industries, and the introduc- 
tion of other industries which are likely to be useful or 
profitable. 

" To insist on the great need that exists for industrial 
instruction and training, and, as far as possible, to promote 
the same in the general education of the people. 

(17) 



" To receive donations, subscriptions, ana bequests from 
persons desiring to promote the objects aforesaid, or any of 
them, and to hold funds in trust for the same. 

" To construct, alter, and maintain any buildings necessary 
or convenient for the purposes of the association. 

" To do all such other lawful things as may from time to 
time be conducive to the attainment of the objects above set 
forth, or any of them." 

During the seven years that the association has been at 
work it has been able to make considerable advance toward 
these aims: 

(i.) It has brought the Cottage and Home Industries of 
Ireland into communication with a common centre. 

(2.) It has provided designs, and given courses of art 
training as far as its means have allowed. 

(3.) It has drawn the attention of the public to the in- 
dustries carried on in Ireland, and to the excellence of their 
products. ^ 

(4.) It has obtained trade orders for the workers. 

(5.) It has held sales, and has established two depots, 
one at 14 Suffolk Street, Dublin, and the other at 20 Mot- 
comb Street, London, for the selling of Irish goods, and has, 
through these means, sent much money direct into the homes 
of the peasantry. During last year $25,000 were thus 
forwarded to the workers. 

(6.) It has lately established several local centres for the 
further development of industries suitable to the different 
districts. 

(7.) It has done much to bring home to the workers the 
need for business-like habits, uniform excellence of work, and 
last, but not least — 

(8.) It has formed a platform on which persons of the 
most diverse political and religious views meet together in a 
common work, which all acknowledge to be for the good of 
their countr}^ z -^ / 

To show that this is no idle boast, a glance at the names 
of those who form the council, the Executive of the Associa- 
tion, will be sufficient. There we find as an active member 
the wife of the Conservative Viceroy, Lord Londonderry, 
as well as the Home Rule Viceroy, Lord Aberdeen; there we 



19 

find Cardinal Logne, Archbishop of Armagh, and also the 
Protestant Archbishop of Dublin; there, too, are John Dillon, 
beside Hon. Horace Pltinkett, the Unionist member for 
Dublin; there we find the Parnellite Lord Mayor of Dub- 
lin and Alderman Meade, beside William O'Brien, and 
Michael Davitt; and so we might go on, giving instances from 
both the central and the local committees, and from the list 
of stall-holders at the sales, showing how Roman Catholics, 
Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Methodists, Quakers, all join 
hands in this work, as well as Nationalists and Unionists of 
all sections. 

A good illustration of this feature of the association was 
shown at an influential meeting held at Dublin in support 
of the Irish Village, when the present Home Rule viceroy, 
Lord Houghton, took the chair; when, in the course of a 
sympathetic and eloquent speech, he laid stress on this 
point: 

" If you look at this platform," he said, " and you have a 
better opportunity of observing it than I have, you will see 
that the materials, so to speak, of which it is composed are 
what in coal-mining we should call distinctly inflammable 
[laughter]. But in the words ' Irish Industries ' we have a 
safety-lamp which, I am confident, prevents any risk. what- 
ever of accidents. [Hear! hear!] 

" It is, indeed, seriously speaking, a very great pleasure 
to me to find how completely people of very divergent views 
can sink their differences and combine for the furtherance of 
an admirable object, such as that before you." [Applause]. 

At another meeting in support of the Irish Industries 
Association and the Irish Village, held in London, the Unionist 
landlord. Lord De Vesci, took the chair, and Lady Aberdeen, 
the Hon. Horace Plunkett, the Unionist, and the eloquent 
Hon. Edward Blake, the Nationalist, spoke. Some letters of 
apology which were read at that meeting may also interest 
our readers, as showing the sympathy of Mr. Gladstone, Mr. 
Arthur Balfour, and Mr. John Morley with the movement. 



20 



'0 DoOUnipg 



' rt el 



'•t 






21 







9u. 






22 



4, Carlton Gardens, S. W., 3d March, 1893. 
Dear Lady Aberdeen: I am sorry that my absence from town 
to-morrow makes it impossible for me to be present at your meeting. 
I particularly regret that this should be so, as I should have been glad 
to do anything in my power in furtherance of the important work in 
which you are engaged. 

Believe me 3^ours sincerely, 




March 3, 1893. 
Dear Lady Aberdeen: I wish very much that I could have been 
present at the meeting of the Irish Industries Association; but m^^ 
time is pre-occupied. You know that I have always watched the work 
done in connection with Irish industries with lively interest, and I most 
heartily wish you well in so excellent an enterprise. 

Yours very truly, 




Before starting for America, Lord and Lady Aberdeen 
received many letters wishing them godspeed in their enter- 
prise at Chicago. 

The following are a few specimens : 

His Grace Doctor Walsh, Archbishop of Dublin, writes: 

I need hardly add that you have my best wishes for the success of 
your interesting enterprise in connection with the Irish "^'illage at 
Chicago. 

By this time you should hardly stand in need of a letter of introduc- 
tion to any one in the States, whether American or Irish, who takes an 
interest in the prosperity of Ireland. But if there is any quarter in 
America in which you think an introduction from me may in any way 
be of help to you, or to the work in which you are laboring so devotedly 
and with such disinterested and untiring zeal, you know you are very 
welcome to use this letter for the purpose. 



23 



With kindest remembrances to Lord Aberdeen, I remain, dear Lady- 
Aberdeen, Most faithfully yours, 





His Eminence Cardinal Logne, Archbishop of Armagh, 

writes: 

Ara Cceli, Armagh, April 15, 1893. 

My Dear Lady Aberdeen: I have great pleasure in bearing testi- 
mony to the grand Avork which the Association is doing. I feel that its 
success hitherto has been mainly due to the untiring zeal with which 
your ladyship, aided and encouraged by Lord Aberdeen, have labored 
to promote industries among the Irish people. I know that the Irish 
people are deeply grateful to you and your noble husband for efforts 
both have made to promote their comfort and prosperity. I trust that 
the fresh efforts you are making, especially your great undertaking in 
connection with the Chicago Exhibition, will meet with the signal success 
which they merit. 

Wishing your ladyship and Lord Aberdeen a prosperous vo^^age, a 
safe return, and all those blessings which your zeal for the welfare of the 
poor can not fail to secure for you, 

i am, dear Lady Aberdeen, 

Yours faithfully, 



^.a^-t^ ^a^^c^, (X^^ 



^^*-< 



Lord Plnnket, Protestant and Conservative Archbishop 
of Dublin, writes:. 

The Palace, St. Stephen's Green, 

Dublin, April 15, 1893. 
Dear Lady Aberdeen: I write for the purpose of expressing my 
very deep interest in the efforts you are so nobly making to have our Irish 
industries fairly and prominently represented at the Chicago Exhibition. 
Most heartily do I wish for the success of the Irish Village, and most 
truly, in common with multitudes of all creeds, classes, and political 



24 



opinions in Ireland, do I thank you for 3^our self-sacrificing labors on 
behalf of my native land ! 

Yours sincerely, 




Mr. Justin McCarthy writes: 

April 15, 1893. 

Dear Lady Aberdeen: Most cordially do I wish you success in your 
Chicago enterprise. I have the most thorough sympathy with your 
objects, and I believe in the soundness of your methods. Other methods 
may do well also — and we have need of everything that can be done — 
yet I can testify to the entire sincerity of your purposes and to their 
truly national character on behalf of Ireland and Irish industrial 
interests. 

Very truly yours. 




/hy^OA^ 



Mr. Michael Davitt, M. P., writes: 

Needless to say that my heartiest good wishes go with you for the 
success of all your plans at Chicago. I fully believe you ivill succeed 
beyond your expectations. 



jVu^ACuJU^oInXC 



These letters and expressions of sympathy might be mul- 
tiplied, but they, along with the extraordinary manifestations 
of interest and enthusiasm in the movement, shown at all 
public meetings in Ireland, at which Lady Aberdeen explained 
the plans and the objects of the Irish Village, are sufficient 
to show how all Ireland is watching the enterprise and feels 
concerned in its success. 



25 

Mr. William Redmond, M. P., also cabled his good wishes 
for the opening of the Irish Village, and Mr. James Carew 
was only prevented at the last moment from coming out per- 
sonally to help forward the -undertaking. 

On the day of Lord and Lady Aberdeen's departure from 
Queenstown leading articles appeared in the Freeman'' s Joiir- 
7tal, the Independent, and the Irish Times, all conveying Ire- 
land's good wishes, and calling on the Irish in America to 
cooperate by every means in their power to promote this 
effort on behalf of the Irish peasantry. The promoters of 
" Ould Ireland ". at the World's Fair are not afraid but what 
they will receive this support and cooperation heartily and 
ungrudgingly from those who so unceasingly remember the 
loved land from which they sprang. They gratefully 
acknowledge the many tokens of support they have already 
received, and especially the spontaneous and ungrudging- 
interest of the press. 

The practical sympath}^ shown by His Eminence Cardi- 
nal Gibbon, and their Graces Archbishop Feehan, Arch- 
bishop Ireland, and Archbishop Ryan has been of the utmost 
value. These prelates have ordered vestments, which are 
now exhibited, and which will, we trust, draw many others 
of the American Catholic clergy to follow their example. 

The Archbishop of Chicago has also kindly allowed us to 
print the following letter: 

Chicago, May 15, 1S93. 
The Countess of Aberdeen. 

Dear Madam: I regret very much that, having had so many engage- 
ments, I have not yet been able to visit the Irish Village at the Exposi- 
tion. The establishment of it is a very noble and most praiseworthy 
undertaking. I hope your labor will be most amply rewarded, and 
that 3^ou will find in America a cordial sympathy in your efforts in 
behalf of Irish industries. 

I remain, dear madam, with the greatest respect, 




L^ 



27 

We have also to convey our most cordial and g-rateful 
thanks to Mr. J. Walsh of the Chicago National Bank, Mr. 
P. J. Sexton and Mr. A. Shuman of Boston, who, along with 
the Hon. Horace Plunkett, M. P., Sir John Amott of Cork, and 
Mr. James Talbot Power of Dublin, have each generously 
advanced $5,000 to the fund, and to Lord Aberdeen, who 
advanced $7,500. Many other smaller sums have been both 
given and advanced by kind friends on both sides of the 
Atlantic. At the close of the Fair a full balance sheet will 
be published, and it is hoped that by that time not only the 
guarantors will have saf el}^ received back their loans, which 
have been of such vital service, but that a handsome surplus 
will be at the credit of the Irish Industries Association for 
the further carrying on of its work in Ireland. 

These few words can not be concluded without drawing 
attention to the ability shown in the design of the village, as 
drawn out by the rising young Dublin architect, ^Ir. Lau- 
rence McDonnell; and without acknowledging our great 
indebtedness to our kind and generous architect in Chi- 
cago, Mr. J. Egan, who has carried out the plans with so 
much personal interest and skill and care, and to Mr. P. J. 
Sexton for the unceasing and vigilant assistance which he 
has given to the village, both during its construction and in 
its finished state. 

IsHBEL Aberdeen. 



AN ODE 

FOR THE OPENING OF THE IRISH VILLAGE AT CHICAGO. 

BY MISS KATHERINE TYNAN. 

Columbus, hailing first this land asleep, 

Far in the purple deep, 

O'er coral islands and o'er winds of dawn 

And sapphire veils withdrawn. 

Foresaw not where did lie 

Wide lakes to mirror half a splendid sky 

And sword-like hills to cleave the clouds in sunder. 

And falls like thunder 

Roaming down many a terrible ravine ; 

Nor that the cliffs, quiet as drowsing kine. 

Hid his highway to a new continent, 

O! Land unspent! 

Land of the world's youth and the sun's old age! 

Magnificent heritage 

Which Spain's great Saint-Commander gave the world. 

With flags unfurled 

For joy, not war, with martial beat of drum, 

The Old AVorld's nations come. 

All m exceeding peace and amity, 

To clasp firm hands with thee. 

He, the great Captain, could he see, would smile, 
Lifting his limbs the Avhile, 
On which the shackles of a Spanish cell 
Had left their marks too well, 
Only that in those years in heaven each weal 
Had time to close and heal 
And grow a glory like a scarlet rose, 
Would smile, remembering those 
His rude rebellious sailors, and their awe 
When at the last they saw 
Low on the sky their promised paradise 
Gleam and arise. 

Yea, he would smile, remembering how he lay 
In dungeons dark and gray, 
With wash of rotting water to his knees, 
(28) 



29 



For where the bison roamed beneath the trees, 

And the gray bear lay in his fetid den, 

Lo, men and men and men! 

Glory and greatness of the human race, 

And freedom, bright of face, 

All arts and industries. 

And brotherhood and peace! 

We, too, the sunset's children, and your kin, 

AVith but the seas between, 

Seemg we have built your cities with our hands 

And delved your fruitful lands. 

And with your wounds have bled, 

And sown 3^our battle-fields with Irish dead. 

We, too, have part in this your jubilation 

And great commemoration, 

Marching in rank with the world's army vast. 

Endlessly marching past, 

Army of peace and love and brave endeavor, 

Great as a new world ever. 

We, too, like old Columbus did set sail 

On a propitious gale, 

Out of a night of hunger and of cold. 

Seeking, like him of old. 

The El Dorado that should change the world, 

And sailed and sailed away, while tempests hurled 

Their shafts upon us, and as timbers flew. 

O New World, it was you, 

Star of our hope, that then 

Lit the horizon, flawless, without stain. 

Like a most pure and perfect amethyst 

Set in a golden mist. 

Breathless, like him we heard it loud and low, 

Land, ho! Land, ho! 

Land of our hope! 

And light ashine in many a horoscope ! 

And great beneficent land that welcomes in 

The exiles, fierce and thin, 

From Old World chains and Old World hunger keen! 

Land of the West! 

More than thy sons rise up and call thee blest! 

From glens where only foot of goat should tread. 

Or little mountain sheep that sweetly fed 

Among the stones where a chance grass-blade springs; 



30 



From hills, where eagles' wings 

Winnow the darkness are we come ; 

And from the creeping foam ; 

From wastes of peat, where screams for food 

The seagull hungry for her brood, 

That fears to dive 

Into the shrieking sea, where curls alive 

The green waves springing for their prey; 

From pleasant valleys, pastures gay. 

Brighter than emeralds, are we come 

To our lost kinsmen's home. 

Here they are free, 

All the wide world is free from sea to sea; 

Here they are part 

Of a great nation's mother-jealous heart, 

Jealous for her least child's least dignity, 

Here they are free ! 

(Save for heart hunger that perpetually 

Calls them across the foam , 

Voice of their mother crying, come home, come home! 

Out of the sea-fog and the mist 

Her wild voice hath not ceased). 

Now, not for riches or for greatness, we 

Praise thee, Columbia free, 

But that thou art enthroned in the West, 

With thy large mother-limbs and mother -breast. 

Thy kind eyes and the sunlight on thy hair, 

Mother of nations fair! 

Glory to God who made thee beautiful, 

And rich and wise to rule, 

And gave thee where thou art 

Thy great maternal heart, 

Glory! glory! 

His blessing still be shed on thee, 

And all men's praise be thine eternally, 

And his who did discover 

Thee, thy true knight and lover! 



SELECTION OF THE FITTEST; 

Or, How Irish Colleens Were Chosen to Represent 
Ireland at the World's Fair. 



A TOUR ON BEHALF OF THE IRISH VILLAGE. 

BY ANGUS MACKAY. 

On Friday, February lo, 1893, Lady Aberdeen, accom- 
panied by her titled twelve-year-old daughter. Lady Marjorie 
Gordon, and the late Mr. Peter White, Honorary Secretary 
to the Irish Industries Association, commenced a tour through 
Ireland, round various centres of Irish industries which were 
to be represented at the Irish Village at Chicago. The tour 
extended over ten days, during which Lady Aberdeen visited 
many lace and crochet makers working in their cottages; 
inspected convent and industrial schools where lace, crochet- 
making, embroidery, weaving, knitting, etc., is taught; 
received and replied to addresses presented to her by public 
boards constituted of men of all creeds and shades of political 
opinion, and with the assistance and cooperation 'of Mr. 
White organized committees and formed local branches of 
the Irish Industries Association in Clones, Limerick, Cork, 
and other centres. The tour from first to last was successful 
and profitable, for it was the means of further organizing 
and developing the work of the Irish Industries Association 
in Ireland, and also of bringing prominently before the 
country the real objects of the Irish Village at the World's 
Fair, and thereby obtaining a large measure of support for it, 
both financial and personal. .^^ ^ 

The first place that claimed Lady Aberdeen's attention 
was Carrickmacross, where the celebrated lace of that name 
is manufactured by the peasant women in their humble 
homes. This industry was first taught to the people of that 
district fifty-eight years ago by a Miss Reid of Rahans 

(31) 



House, who happened to find a piece of old Flemish lace. 
She first solved the mystery of its manufacture herself and 
then imparted her knowledge to a class of young women, 
who were apt to learn. Thus originated the famous Carrick- 
macross lace, known now all over the world where fashions 
have a place in the thoughts of ladies. Several splendid 
specimens of the beautiful fabric are on exhibition in the 




A Bright Worker. 

Irish Village, in the Woman's Building: Lady Aberdeen, 
accompanied by ^Irs. Browne of Dublin,one of the most earnest 
workers on the Committee of the Irish Industries Association", 
visited the workers in their hom.es, with Lady Marjorie, Mr. 
White, Miss McKeon, who overlooks the work in this district, 
Dean Biermingham, and some other priests in the district, and 
saw them plying the needle by the little windows, which do 
not admit much light to the cottage. Many beautiful lace 



33 

iloiinces and veils were examined witli interest, and several 
photographs of the lace-makers at their work were taken by 
Lady Aberdeen. The cottages where the lace-makers live 
are scattered over a wide area in the neighborhood of Car- 
rickmacross, and having paid a short visit to each, and having 
selected a capable worker for the Irish Village, the party 
drove into the town itself, where the members of the Board 
of Guardians and the members of the Town Commissioners 
presented Lady Aberdeen Avith an address. The visitors 
went around the Bath and Shirley Schools, where the lace- 




JusT Caught by the Kodak. 

Tnakers are trained, and the Convent Schools, and were enter- 
tained at luncheon before returning to Dundalk, where the 
night was passed and where more Industrial Schools were 
inspected. That evening in Dundalk Lady Aberdeen and her 
daughter had the pleasant experience of being serenaded by 
the town band by torch-light. 

Early next morning the Countess and her party departed 
for Clones. The chairman and members of the Clones Town 
Commissioners and several clerg3"men met and welcomed 
her ladyship, and hundreds of the townsfolk assembled out- 

3 



34 

side the station and gave their guests a Cead iiiille failthe^ 
In the course of the forenoon Lad}^ Aberdeen and Mr. White- 
conferred with the leading citizens on the subject of the 
improvement of the crochet industry in the district, and 
suggestions were made as to the best way of developing the 
work, such as the supplying of the best thread to the crochet- 
makers; the bringing of the workers into a market without 
the intervention of a middleman, who would swallow all the 
profits; the supply of new designs, and so on. It was pointed 
out that the Irish Industries Association w^as one of the best 




Where a Bridal Set of Carrickmacross Lace Was Made. 
mediums for selling the crochet and for obtaining further 
orders for it from the trade, and was also in a position to fur- 
nish fresh designs. The conference resulted in the ladies and 
gentlemen present determining there and then to form a 
local committee and branch of the association to look after 
the industry. The committee was constituted of gentlemen 
and ladies of all sections of the community, the chairman of 
the Town Commissioners undertaking to act as chairman, and 
Mr. Robinson, the town clerk, becoming secretary. After- 
ward a public meeting was held in the town hall, attended 
by hundreds of workers from the mountainous district 



35 

around, when several addresses were presented to Lady 
Aberdeen. Among the gentlemen who spoke were Catholics, 
and Protestants, and ministers of all denominations. Lady 
Aberdeen herself made a speech which gave much informa- 
tion about the work and also the Irish Village, and in which 
reference was made to the extensive orders which Mr. White 
had obtained in America for Clones' crochet-work. Mr. 
White frequently made journeys to America on behalf of 
the Irish Woollen Company, and on the last of these occa- 
sions he secured orders for crochet that for many months 
kept some two hundred women employed at a time when 
but for this timely help starvation would have stared them 
in the face. After the meeting Lady Aberdeen, having 
engaged Mary Flynn to come out to Chicago to show 
the crochet-making, returned to Dublin and spent the " Sun- 
day at the castle. Early on Monday morning, the noble 
lady, with her daughter and Mr. White, travelled to Lim- 
erick, where on leaving the train she received a great 
popular ovation, and was escorted triumphantly by hun- 
dreds of the citizens to the city hall, where the mayor 
and aldermen and councilors, wearing their robes, received 
her and presented her with an address. In a voice full 
of emotion Lady Aberdeen replied, and expressed her 
thanks. Luncheon was partaken of at the palace of the 
Protestant Bishop of Limerick, Dr. Graves, and subsequently 
Lady Aberdeen met at the Chamber of Commerce the lead- 
ing merchants and business men of the city, gentlemen of 
all creeds and of all political faiths. From these citizens 
she received an address which bore the names of Lady 
Emly, Lord and Lady Monteagle, Mr. Bannatyne, the Presi- 
dent of the Chamber of Commerce, Mr. A. A. Shaw, Vice- 
President, and many others. The Countess having replied 
to the address, resolutions in support of the Irish Industries 
Association were adopted. Later in the afternoon, accord- 
ing to the arrangement made by Mr. White, visits were paid 
to Mr. Shaw's celebrated bacon factory, and to one of the 
chief hospitals, and later in the evening Lady Aberdeen 
received at the palace a number of the old and genuine 
Limerick lace-makers, who are now employed by Mrs. Vere 
O'Brien, who has done so much for Limerick lace; one of 



36 

these, who said she was eighty-six years of age, is the sole 
survivor of the four women who worked the bridal-veil for 
Queen Victoria. On Tuesday visits were paid to Mrs. 
Cleever's flourishing milk factory, which does much good 
and employs much labor, and to the Limerick Clothing 
Factory, which gives employment to about nine hundred 
girls and young lads. This establishment, which undertakes 
government contracts for the supply of uniforms, etc., is one 
of the largest in the United Kingdom, and is beautifully 
arranged in all its details for the comfort and convenience 
of the workers. The Lace School had next to be inspected. 
The Lace School consists of two rooms in an old building in 
a squalid part of the city. There are perhaps twenty girls 
being taught here to make Limerick lace, which threatened 
to become a lost art until a number of ladies and gentlemen 
conceived the idea of having the children taught by the 
surviving lace-makers. The school is in a flourishing con- 
dition, and Lady Aberdeen had the pleasure of presenting 
prizes to the girls that had been won b}^ them for superiority 
in lace-making. A worker Avas also selected for the Irish 
Village, and the lace in process of making for the Exhibition 
was examined. The first meeting of the new Limerick 
Committee of the Irish Industries Association had then to 
be attended, and future work discussed; then various visits 
to convent and industrial schools in Limerick and some of 
the commercial establishments in the city, and the day 
ended with a numerously attended concert on behalf of the 
hospital. 

The following day, as it happened, was Ash Wednesday, 
and there was some uncertainty about our movements. 
Was it to be a day of idleness, or a day of work? A day at 
Killarney, or a day at Clonmel ? A day of work, said Lady 
Aberdeen, and so the party set out for Clonmel, and what 
we saw well repaid our trouble at Marlfield. About two 
miles from Clonmel there resides Mrs. Bagwell, whose hus- 
band is Avell known in political and literary circles. This 
good lady has taught the peasant girls who reside on her 
husband's property a beautiful form of simple embroidery, 
samples of which may be seen in the Irish Village. The girls 
carry on the work at their own hearths, or at the cottage- 



37 

door on the long summer nights, and when it is completed 
it is sold for them by Mrs. Bagwell, who overlooks every 
detail of the industry, paying her workers weekly herself in 
her own room, and who makes it a condition that a certain 
portion of the money obtained is lodged in the savings-bank. 
And thus it is that all these girls have a nice little nest-egg 
against the day of their marriage; or, if they do not marry, the 
money is there to fall back upon in old age. Having visited 
and photographed many of the neat, trim cottages where this 
embroidery is made and habits of thrift taught. Lady Aber- 
deen returned to Clonmel, and the same afternoon travelled 
to Cork, where she became the guest of Sir John and Lady 
Arnott. A wonderfully gratifying reception awaited her in 
the southern city. Citizens of every shade of opinion had 
combined together to form a reception committee, and, in 
spite of torrents of rain, an assembly of several thousands 
awaited the train and received their guest with so much 
enthusiasm that it was with difficulty that the committee 
could convey her from the railway station to Lady Arnott's 
carriage, which was in waiting. At an early hour next 
morning, and in delightful weather, Lady Aberdeen and her 
party, now accompanied by Lady Arnott and several of the 
members of her family, journeyed down to Skibbereen by 
rail. On her arrival there. Lady Aberdeen was presented with 
an address of welcome by the town commissioners, who, with 
hundreds of the towhspeople, had assembled at the station. 
The little town had quite a festive appearance, and even the 
convent was in holiday attire. At this establishment Lady 
Aberdeen and the other visitors were received by the Bishop 
of Ross and the Reverend Mother, who, with j)ardonable 
pride, pointed to the pleasing spectacle of a large number of 
young girls industriously engaged at weaving-looms, of 
which there are twenty-three at present. The girls, who 
are taught by a Presbyterian weaver from the north of Ire- 
land, manufacture most excellent linens; and there is reason 
to believe that a fine, healthy weaving-industry will yet be 
established in the town. When a few nuns and girls can do 
what we saw in the convent, surely the townspeople, aided 
by a body like the Irish Industries Association, can do a great 
deal more. 



38 



From this convent Lady Aberdeen drove to Baltimore, 
a distance of nine miles; but the scenery was charming, and 
the Countess could not resist the temptation to carry away 
in her kodak a picture of the beautiful Loughine, an armlet 
of the sea that wandered inland, and becoming so enamored 
of the beauty of the hills, resolved to remain there. Lough- 
ine is connected with the Atlantic by an outlet or inlet only 
a few feet broad, so that it appears to be an inland lake. 
Baltimore is a small village where a number of philanthropic 
ladies and gentlemen have established a school for instruct- 
ing boys in the arts connected with the fishing industry. In 




A Talk About Irish Indt -tries in ax 
Irish Village. 

this good work they have had the assistance of Father Davis, 
a noble-minded, philanthropic clergyman, the memory of 
whose services for his fellow-creatures, in that wild and 
remote region, is his best, and probably his most enduring, 
monument. Sir Thomas Brady, late government inspector 
of fisheries, who interests himself also in the promotion of Ire- 
land's fisheries, and Mr. Crosbie of Cork, travelled with the 
party from Cork and conducted them over the school. The 
boys showed us how they weave their fishing-nets; and 
when the local harbour board had presented an address to 
Lady Aberdeen the party drove back to Skibbereen, and 
from thence proceeded by rail to Cork. The following 



39 

morning, at an early hour, visits were paid to several places 
of interest in " Rebel Cork," as it is called by Irish patriots. 
The most enjoyable experiences in this connection were at 
the Convent of the Good Shepherd, where we saw some 
hundred of little girls, that had been rescued from destitu- 
tion, knitting, sewing, embroidering, and lace-making. And 
then ten of them performed for us, in costume, the most 
graceful country dances and jigs that it would be possible to 
see. The costumes were Irish, and one of them may be seen 
in the Irish Village. At 12 o'clock Lady Aberdeen was 
received by a number of gentlemen at the Munster Agri- 
cultural Dairy School, where young men are taught farming 
and farmers' daughters instructed in all concerning the dairy. 
Here Lady Aberdeen and Mr. White selected three dairy- 
maids for the Irish Village. 

At I o'clock the same day, the party left by train for Kin- 
sale, The village people accorded Lady Aberdeen a hearty 
welcome, and at the convent school the town commissioners 
presented her with an address. The girls of the school are 
versed in the art of lace-making and embroidery, and several 
specimens of their work are on view in the Woman's Build- 
ing. On returning to Cork, Lady Aberdeen paid a visit to 
the Protestant Industrial School at Marble Hall, and was 
conducted over the premises by the Bishop of Cork, Doctor 
Gregg. The school is flourishing, and the lads happy and 
well-behaved. The boys invariably do well when they leave 
this establishment and go out into the world, which speaks 
well for their training. After leaving Marble Hall Lady 
Aberdeen made a call at the Convent of the Sisters of Mercy, 
Blackrock, where the nuns teach the children and the women 
of the locality to make crochet. Perhaps the very finest 
Irish point-lace is made in Youghal, so Lady Aberdeen was 
very much interested in her trip to that fishing-village on 
the south coast. We left by an early train on Saturday 
morning, and as usual there was a genuine Irish welcome 
awaiting the Countess at the station. At the convent school 
two addresses vv^ere presented to her — one from the town 
oommissioners and another from the Board of Guardians. 
The visitors were then shown the exquisite point-lace made 
in this school, some of which is on exhibition in the Irish 



40 



Village. Before leaving the convent Lady Aberdeen was- 
presented with a valuable point-lace handkerchief made of 
the very finest Irish flax. We returned early in the after- 
noon in order to be in time for the meeting in Cork which 
Lady Aberdeen was to address. For it the most elaborate 
preparations had been made, and it was thoroughly success- 
ful from every point of view. The large hall in which it was 
held was packed with people of every way of political feel- 
ing and every religious denomination, and the application 
for tickets was largely in excess of the supply. Business 
people, professional people, and people who are in the happy 




Marlfield, County Tipperarv. 

position of living on their means were all there, and took an 
earnest interest in the proceedings. The meeting was 
addressed by the most prominent citizens, and an influential 
local committee of the Irish Industries Association was 
formed to look after the industries of the country and dis- 
trict, and to keep those industries in touch Avith the ^Darent 
association. Lady Aberdeen, in acknowledging the address 
presented by the mayor and corporation of Cork, delivered a 
powerful speech, in which she graphically described what 
the Irish Village would be when completed. She described, 
too, the work that was being done by the association of 
which she is the president, and to such good purpose that 
Sir John Arnott, the proprietor of the IrisJi Times, while she: 



41 

was yet speaking, intimated his intention to subscribe ^loo- 
to the capital for working the Irish Village at the Chicago- 
Exhibition, and ^i,ooo toward the guarantee fund — an 
announcement which, of course, was received with ringing 
cheers. 

On Monday before leaving Cork, the excellent school of 
the Christian Brothers, the convent at Queenstown, where 
weaving and industrial work are taught, and other institutions 
were visited, and Blarney was not forgotten, and both Lad5r 
Aberdeen and Mr. White kissed the famous stone for the 
first time by moonlight. Lady Aberdeen addressed a 
crowded meeting of the friends and members of the Irish 
Indiistries Association in Dublin, and on Tuesday, accompa- 
nied by Lord Aberdeen, whose engagements now permitted of 
his return to Ireland, she traveled to New Ross, in Coimty 
Wexford. The reception accorded to Lord and Lady Aber- 
deen was enthusiastic in the extreme, for the people turned 
out in thousands and escorted them through the streets in 
triumphal fashion, with bands and banners. At the convent 
school of the Carmelites the town commissioners presented 
Lady Aberdeen with an address, to which both she and Lord 
Aberdeen replied, and Mr. White added some earnest words 
of encouragement to the people to start afresh some centre 
of work. Wednesday was occupied in paying visits to several 
places in Dublin where work was being prepared for Chicago, 
including a convent at Golden Bridge and another at Lake- 
lands, Sandymount; the Model Farm, Glasnevin, and the 
Hop Stout Factory; and in the evening Lord and Lady 
Aberdeen departed for London. 

From first to last the tour was a success, and undoubtedly 
it will have a beneficial effect upon Irish industries. That 
Lady Aberdeen was able to do so much was owing to the 
admirable arrangements made by Mr. Peter White, the 
Honorary Secretary of the Irish Industries Association, 
whose untimely death a few short weeks later came as a 
painful shock on the myriads of friends whom he had made 
on both sides of the Atlantic. Lady Aberdeen has herself 
paid a tribute to his worth and his invaluable services, and her 
words will fittingly conclude this brief sketch. Speaking on 
Wednesday, April 19th, at the convent at Cabra to a number 
of ladies and gentlemen. Lady Aberdeen said, referring to- 



42 

lier previous visit to Dublin: " The remembrances of that 
day last in Dublin are altogether sad ones to me, because I 
can not help thinking that the exertions which our dear 
iriend, Mr. Peter White, went through on that day, and the 
way in which he exposed himself to the wet, aggravated 
very much the illness that had already gained ground on 
iiim, and which in the end deprived us and Ireland oi so 




Two OF Mrs. Bagwell's Cottage Workers at ]Marlfield, 
County Tipperary. 

invaluable a worker. All through that day he had worked 
very hard, and in spite of what must have been gi-eat phys- 
ical discomfort and weakness, although he managed in a great 
measure to hide it from us. That day was only a specimen 
•of what his life had been. Early in the morning he had 
been at work at the office; after that he was busy making 
^rran2:ements for interviews for me and visits which we had to 



43 



pay together. Then he came to Golden Bridge, where we saw 
the work that had been done there for Chicago, and when we 
found we could not get here in time, he drove off to tell you I 
could not come. And he came back quite enthusiastic about 
all he had seen and the work that was being done here. 
Then he came with me to Glasnevin Model Farm, and in the 
afternoon accompanied me to Lakelands Convent at Sandy- 
mount. In the evening he saw us off from Kingstown. 
But that did not complete his day's work, for he went back 
to the office and continued working, and this was the last 
day this good friend, who had done so much for Ireland, was 
ever outside his house. That day was only a specimen of 
how his life had been spent in working for others. I had 




Baltimore, County Cork, Near the Industrial Fishery School. 

ample opportunity of seeing something of it during that 
interesting tour which I had through Ireland lately with 
him for the purpose of seeing the industrial work in various 
places, and which we were going to represent in Chicago. 
Wherever we went it was always the same thing; it was Mr. 
White who did everything, arranged everything, organized 
everything, and yet he had done it all so tactfully and so 
imobtrusively that no one scarcely knew it was done at all, 
and, least of all, that he had done it. And the knowledge 
he showed everywhere of the different districts, of the needs 
of those districts, and of the special circumstances connected 
with them; and the capacity which he showed in bringing 
his business experience to bear upon the different needs of 




PETER WHITE, 
Honorable Secretary of the Irish Indlstries Association, and Mana- 
ger AND Organizer of the Irish Village at the AVorld's Fair. 
Born September, 1850. Died April g, 1893. 



45 

the different districts' industries, and the way in which he 
gave just the right advice, and the way he knew how to give 
that advice so as to make it alwa3^s acceptable — all these 
things make us feel what a terrible and irreparable loss we 
have sustained, both from the point of view of personal 
character and mental ability. Never can I hope, for m}- 
part, to find a more loyal friend or more efficient and enthu- 
siastic fellow-worker. In saying this I know I am not only 
speaking for myself, but am voicing the feelings of all my 
colleagues of the Irish Industries Association. 

" A great and abiding sense of blank and loss seems to 
follow me when I think of him, and more especially to-day, 
as I came to Ireland for the first time to find him gone, and 
to remember that I must now set sail for Chicago without 
him, without his support, his advice, his never-failing wis- 
dom and energy. But while our own great loss thus comes 
home to us, I know that all our hearts go out to-day in the 
deepest sympathy to those near and dear ones of his own 
who are mourning him, his widowed mother, his six little 
children, and, above all, his brave young wife, who through- 
out these weary weeks, with their many ups and downs, has 
shown herself his worthy partner for heroism and unselfish- 
ness. Always bright and full of courage, always mindful of 
the work so dear to his heart, even at the worst times, always 
desirous to spare others when her whole being was racked 
with anxiety and apprehensions of the very worst, and even 
now ready to go out to Chicago to give us the great benefit 
of her personal help and presence in carrying out the enter- 
prise which her husband had planned and which will, as an 
Irish newspaper has well put it, form his most fitting monu- 
ment. It has been good to have been brought into contact 
with two such heroic lives. I dare not say more, for it seems 
to me I hear a voice saying, ' Take off thy shoes from off thy 
feet, for the place whereon thou standest is hoi}" ground.' 

" It will be strange indeed if the laying down of his life 
in our cause does not act as a fresh inspiration to those who 
are left to carry on the work in his spirit, and if it does not 
raise up ten workers where there was but one before. This 
is how he would have had it, and if this proves to be the 
case, he will not have died in vain; the mystery of his 
removal at such a time will be mitiofated." 





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Blarney Castle. 

Here is the stone 
That whoever kisses, 
Oh, he never misses 
To grow eloquent. 
A clever speaker he'll turn out, 
Or an out-and-outer in Parliament. 



HOW THE BLARNEY STONE GOT ITS POWER. 



The mystic virtues of the world-famed stone in Blarney- 
Castle owe their origin to a truly romantic story. 

A nymph of the sunny streams of the South of Ireland 
became intensely enamoured of the first young prince of the 
McCarthy family, who at that time ruled over the broad 
acres of Munster. 

Her love was warmly reciprocated, and in this happy 
state the days and hours rolled smoothly along. 

However, in the terrible vicissitudes of his country and. 
kin, the young prince was called away to repel the invaders. 
The parting was a most affecting one, and mutual promises. 
and vows were exchanged. 

During the absence of the young prince the nymph wan- 
dered along the banks of the streams of her usual haunts, 
and, desolate and loneh^, awaited with an anxious and long- 
ing heart any news from the wars, and in the waning of 
twilight beguiled the heavy time by singing some of the 
sweet and melancholy airs of her native music. 

In this great anxiety the sad news was brought to her 
one morning that her lover was slain in battle. 

Her grief knew no bounds. 

In utter desolation and despair she roamed hither and 
thither — neither seeking nor accepting comfort nor conso- 
lation. 

To end this unmeasurable woe she was changed by the 
superior deity into a stone on the bank of the river on which 
the castle was afterward built. 

The extraordinary virtues which the stone undoubtedly 
possesses remained undiscovered for many years. But as 
soon as they were found out the great Cormac McCarthy 
had the stone placed in what he considered the safest posi- 
tion of his stronghold, and had it guarded with the most 
iealous care. 

(47) 



THE TRADITIONS OF BLARNEY. 

BY J. o'mAHONY. 

Wherever the scattered children of the Gael are destined 
to wander they bring- with them, " Through distance and 
danger, to gladden their hearts like a home-guiding star, the 
loving memories and abiding traditions of the far-off land — 
the 'Shan Ban Bocht.' "* Irish men and Irish women, and 
the many little ones that God sends to bless them, keep ever 
and always dreaming and hungering after that most distress- 
ful country which has been their mother. Thus it is through 
necessity, as it were, that many of the other people in the 
wide Avorld have been made acquainted with the stories of 
the small, green island set in the Western Ocean, whose his- 
tory has been that of the '' Beggar Maid on the Highway of 
the Universe." 

Before Patrick and his white-robed disciples had kindled 
the light of faith in the land of Erin, Blarney was already a 
place of importance. In that haunt of sylvan splendor the 
rock, close within the shadow of the castle, to this day can be 
traced for the skeptical eye of the modern tourist — the evi- 
dence, sure and certain, that there the Druids held their 
religious festivals and performed their mystic rites. Beside 
the banks, whereon the cowslips and daffodils grow, of the crys- 
tal-clear " Comhan " or Bending Stream there still can be 
seen the huge Cromlech, which scholars tell us was the 
Druids' altar. The Castle of Blarne}^ was built by Cormack 
MacCarthy Laider, that is, " the strong," who died in 1495 and 
was buried in Kilcrea Abbey in '' Muskerr}^," or the fair 
country. He was a brave man and a great builder. The 
MacCarthys are indifferently styled by the historians kings of 
Desmond and of Cork. One thing is certain: the}^ were a 
warlike people and very great scorners of death, as were all 

*The "Shan Ban Bocht," i. e., the poor old woman — a term of 
endearment for Ireland. 

(48) 



49 



the descendants of that grand old race of men, taller than 
Roman spears, who in former times held Ireland. When 
Dermot MacMurrogh brought over Earl Strongbow and his 
train of adventurous knights, one of these self-same Mac- 
Carthys, the chief of his nation and captain of his people, 
Dermot of Cille-Baine, was King of Cork. He was a loose 
:sword, grown old in wars and full of years, for many a fight 
he won and lost with the Norsemen and Danes who in their 
strong ships bore down upon his shores. But for all that he 
" went in " and paid tribute to Henry, the strangers' king. 
But there was a woman in the case, for the old king, sea- 
soned by seventy winters, was enslaved as a suitor for the 
fair young hand of a Norman damsel. For her sweet sake 
he submitted to the English, he suffered the rebellion of his 
subjects, and subsequently the usurpation of his son. And 
this was not enough, but even his young bride's friends 
treated him unfairly, and her maritagium^ or dower, was 
withheld for years; which we learn from a curious entry in 
a close roll preserved in the Tower of London, made in the 
first year of the reign of Henry III,, A. D. 12 17 — an order to 
the justiciar}^ of Ireland to cause payment to be made with- 
out delay to Petronella de Bloet, a Norman lady, of her 
dower, which had been given her by her brother, Thomas de 
Bloet, on her marriage to Dermot MacCarthy, King of Cork. 
For centuries after the coming of the Normans, the Fitzger- 
alds, the bravest and proudest of them all, were engaged in 
continuous warfare with the MacCArthys. It was the spirit 
of the age; as the old Irish saying has it, "the time of 
Laebh Laider Arraughter," that is, "of the strong hand 
uppermost." The annals of Innisfailen tell of many a dark 
deed of blood that came between these two powerful 
people. 

Once in the winter-time of the year 1267, when night had 
fallen on the fortified settlement of the strangers at Cullen, 
in the County of Kerry, the Clancarty, mustering all its 
horsemen, swooping down in the dark, slew John Fitzgerald 
and his son Manria, with several knights and many a goodly 
gentleman of their household, "and so oppressed them," 
says the pious, cunning-handed annalist, " that the Fitzgerald 
durst not put a plow to the ground for twelve years after." 
4 



50 

From such people sprang Cormac the Strong, the brave man 
and great builder. His descendants, like his fathers, were 
given to warring and " going out upon their keeping," as the 
state papers say of them. These, weary of the piping times 
of peace, sighed for warfare as the becalmed sailor does for 
wind. One of these men, Cormac, son of Dermot, in Queen 
Elizabeth's reign, was a source of no little annoyance to the 
queen and her council at Dublin. The astute Carew, the 
Lord-Governor of Munster, not being able to break this man 
by force, endeavored to hurt him by the smoother, if less 
straight, ways of diplomacy; but wily and resourceful was 
the chieftain with the statesman, Carew kept constantly 
writing to her majesty that he had MacCarthy in his power, 
as he was agreeing to break through the practice Of " Tan- 
istry," and come in and have a re-grant of his land from the 
crown; but Cormac MacDermot, instead of facilitating the 
state policy, kept procrastinating and making soft promises 
and raising up delusive delays until in the end Carew became 
the laughing-stock of Elizabeth's court, and " Blarney talk " 
became proverbial. 

With the fall of the Stuarts many an Irish family went 
down, and the MacCarthys of Blarney among them. The 
estates were confiscated and the heirs sent into exile. Those 
were evil days for the remnant of the old stock which still 
clung closely to the religion of their fathers. The sons of 
many of the noble houses went out upon the outlaw's wild 
career as ''Rapparees" in the woods and upon the hillsides, but 
most of them went beyond the seas as captains of the " Wild 
Geese" — the Irish recruits which swelled the continental 
armies and won victories from " Dunkirque to Belgrade." 
Even in Ireland to-day many of the stories of these brave 
men and their adventures obtain. Some of the sweetest 
songs in the kindly pleasure-giving Gaelic are the Jacobite 
relics. Mr. Denny Lane of Cork, who was the friend of 
Thomas Davis and stood on the outer circle of the wonderftil 
body of men who helped to bring a new soul into their 
country, after the famine of 1847, composed a beautiful 
ballad, typical of its kind, purporting to be the lament of an 
Irish maiden for her lover who has gone to France with the 
^' Wild Geese:" 



51 

The heath is brown on Car^ighdho^vn, 

The clouds are dark on Ardualee, 
And many a stream comes rushing down 

To swell the angry Ouingabwee. 
The mountain blast is sweeping fast 

Through many a leafless tree, 
But I'm alone, for he has gone, 

My hawk is flown, Ochone Machree! 

The heath was green on Carrighdhown, 

Bright shone the sun on Ardualee, 
The dark green trees bent trembling down 

To kiss the strawberry, Ouingabwee; 
That happy day, 'twas but last May, 

It's like a dream to me, 
When Donal swore, aye, o'er and o'er. 

We'd part no more, Asthore Machree! 

Soft April showers and sweet Ma}^ flowers 

May bring the summer back again. 
But will they bring me back the hours 

I spent with my brave Donal then? 
It's but a chance, for he's gone to France 

To wear the fleur de lys. 
But I'll follow you, my Donal, dhu. 

For still I'm true to you, Machree! 

When Cromwell was in Ireland Broghill (1643) took 
Blarney, as Donogh, son of Cormac, was identified with the 
confederation of Kilkenny, and in 1796 the last Earl of 
Clancarthy was outlawed and his estate escheated for his 
interest in Righ Shamus. The immortal Father Prout, the 
author of the charter song of Cork, " The Bells of Shandon," 
in his relique giving an account of Walter Scott's visit to 
Blarney and kissing the stone, in 1823, gives us polyglot ver- 
sions of the Groves of Blarne}", which was written by Dick 
Milliken, a yeomanry captain in the famous North Cork 
Militia, who made themselves so notorious against the boys 
of Wexford in the troubled times of '98. Dick Milliken's 
pastoral air, " The Groves of Blarney," that never sufficiently 
to be encored song, according to Mahony, describes — 

The groves of Blarney 

That look so charming, 

Down by the purlings 

Of sweet silent brooks. 

Are decked by posies, 



52 

That spontaneous grow there, 

Planted in order 

In the rocky nooks. 

It's there the daisy 

And the sweet carnations, 

The blooming pink, 

And the rose so fair. 

Likewise the lily 

And the daffodilly, 

All flowers that scent 

The sweet open air. 

The old-time poet then proceeds to tell tis: 

There is a cave where 
No daylight enters. 
But bats and badgers 
Are forever bred. 
And moss by nature 
Makes it completer 
Than a coach and six 
Or a downy bed. 

And admits that there are — 

Lots of beauties 
Which I can not entwine. 
But were I a preacher 
In every feature 
I'd make 'em shine. 
There is a stone 
That whoever kisses, 
Oh! he never misses 
To grow eloquent. 
'Tis he may clamber 
To a lady's favor. 
Or become a member 
Of Parliament; 
A clever spouter 
He'll sure turn out, or 
An out-and-outer 
To be let alone. 
Don't try to hinder him, 
Or to bewilder him. 
For he's a pilgrim 
From the Blarney stone. 

When the estate was confiscated it fell into the hands of 
the Jeffers family, who came into Ireland with the William- 



53 

ites. Father Prout preserves for us also the humorous song 
sung to the racy air, " I'm Akin to the Callaghans:" 

"BLARNEY CASTLE, ME DARLIN'." 

Och Blarney Castle, me darlint, 

Sure ye're nothing at all but a stone 
Wrapt in iv}^ — a nest for all vermint, 

Since the old Lord Clancarty is gone. 

Bad cess to that robber, ould Cromwell 

Himself and his long battering train. 
That rambled o'er here like a porpoise 

In two or three hookers from Spain. 

With his Jack-boots he stepped on the water, 
And he walked clane right over the lake. 

While his sodgers the}- all followed after, 
As dry as a duck and a drake. 

Then the gates he burned down to a cinder. 

And the roof he demolished likewise: 
Oh the rafters they flamed out like tinder, 

And the building flamed up to the skies. 

And he gave the estate to the Jeffers, 
With the dairy, the cows, and the hay; 

And they lived there in clover like heifers, 
As their ancestors do to this da3^ 

So much for the songs and skits on Blarney. 

The close keep or central tower, which is the main por- 
tion of the old castle standing, has the famous stone. This 
stone, according to tradition, is endowed with the property 
of communicating to the happy tongue that comes in con- 
tact with its polished surface the gift of gentle, insinuating 
speech, with soft talk and all its ramifications — such as lead 
captive the female heart, or elaborate mystifications of a 
graver grain — such as may do for the House of Commons — 
are characterized by the mysterious term, ''Blarney." 

The beautiful lake on the southern side of the building 
was dragged many years ago by an eccentric member of the 
Jeffers family, who thought to drain it and discover the 
plate which tradition saj^s the McCarthys hid there in their 
flight after the siege of Blarney by Cromwell, in trust that 
times of greater hope would arise and they would have their 



54 

own again. Tradition says that only three McCarthys knew 
the exact whereabouts of this treasure, and when one is 
dying he communicates it to another faithful one of the geits. 
The peasant people of Blarney tell weird stories, especially 
about its lake, in which the supernatural preponderate. The 
husbandman hastening home at night sees the shore of the 
lake crowded with rich cattle, which vanish into the air on 
closer examination, and the hill at Bawnafenn (or the " Pas- 
ture of Beauty ") about the lake, the country girl who sings 
while she milks the quiet kine hears her voice rivaled by the 
beautiful singing of a woman's voice beneath the lake, and 
when she hushes her song to listen more attentively, it too 
dies away upon the breeze. 

We do not know whether the new Blarney by the shores 
of Lake Michigan will bring whispering voices and shades 
from the unseen world, but we do know that the Irishmen 
and Irishwomen who linger around its precincts will hear 
murmurs from the " ould country " which will tell them that 
by their presence here they are bringing help and blessings 
to the homes of their kinsmen in the Emerald Isle. 



THE COTTAGE INDUSTRIES OF DONEGAL. 

BY MISS KATHERINE TYNAN. 

After one quits the region of railways at Ballyshannon, 
Donegal becomes a county of hills and dales. Ballyshan- 
non one leaves in the valley, by the exquisite banks of its 
silver Erne, with all its gracious memories of William 
Allingham; and one is raced by " the brave pony," as its driver 
calls it, of the mail-car, up a break-neck hill, and into the 
swelling county beyond. For long it is wild and bare 
enough, but one brown shoulder of a hill is looming ever 
over another, and on the horizon one catches sight of the sea 
like a flashing silver shield; and the brown fields are full of 
lakelets of limpid water that mirror the sky — these April 
days of an extraordinary brilliancy — so the scene is never 
without its beauty. Curiously depopulated, however! It 
is only at intervals of a couple of miles, that one comes on 
a haggard, handsome peasant sowing his corn, or a poor 
hamlet by the roadside. Here there are the cottage indus- 
tries of Mrs. Hamilton of Ballintra; but one wonders, look- 
ing over the lovely landscape, where are the cottagers to be 
taught, or whether the Celt be not indeed vanished from the 
face of this lovely, unfruitful land. It adds to the sparse- 
ness and solitariness that the fences are stone walls, the 
stones heaped with a looseness and carelessness that make 
one suppose the first west wind from the Atlantic would 
bring them clattering about the sods. An exceedingly lovely 
desert, with its April banks of violets and primroses, and its 
brilliant April sky. Toward Donegal town the country takes 
a different aspect. It becomes more green and cultivated, 
and the closer hills of the Donegal highlands loom great 
and sapphire-like. There are park -lands and deep plantations 
covering the hillside. Every wild rush down a hillside or up 
into the world brings one to a new beauty. Now one turns 
a corner to find the river Esk widening to the sea; the 

(55) 



56 

encroaching- tide has sapped the cultivated land, and sends 
up a long tongne of salt marishes into the valley. The prin- 
cipal portion of Donegal town is built about a triangle — the 
Diamond, they call it. One approaches this from the quay, 
where the tall spars of ships are graceful against the silver 
distance; and the abbey where the Four Masters wrote their 
annals looks from its graves out over the water. In Done- 
g-al one comes on the first track of the cottage industries. 
Mr. Magee, who has a big shop at the corner of the Diamond, 
is an extensive buyer of the woolen fabrics that are brought 
from the outlying districts to be sold in Ardara market. He 
has a great stock of brown and gray tweeds, Donegal home- 
spuns, which he sells extensively in English and American 
markets. He told us that at the market held on the first of 
each month at Ardara, the average purchases amount to 
;,f i,ooo w^orth. He himself signed cheques for ^300 at the 
last market, and he is only one of the buyers. The stuffs 
are of great purity and durability, and the patterns, so far as 
they go, are good. But they do not go far enough. The 
people go on making their everlasting browns and grays, in 
stripes and squares; and meanwhile every year Fashion, as 
eager for new things as the Athenians of old, demands a 
change; and so the Donegal homespuns, in their groove of 
sameness, go to the wall. New patterns are needed urgently, 
says Mr. Magee; new dyes, improved machines, and a couple 
of skilled weavers to teach new ways. 

Another industry one hears of at Donegal is embroider- 
ing on muslin and linen. Mr. Hugh Gallagher of the Quay 
had piles of fine cambric handkerchiefs, sprigged and let- 
tered by the peasants of Donegal. He is only the middle- 
man for these, which go to merchants in Belfast, or to more 
distant markets. There was a great demand in America for 
such goods till the McKinley tariff — which Donegal fondly 
hopes will be repealed under a Cleveland administration — 
ruined this delicate industry so far as America is concerned. 

Donegal now sends away her comely sons and daughters. 
Everywhere one hears the same sad • story of emigration ; 
everjrvvhere resounds the cry," If the people could only be kept 
in the country! " What they want is manufactures and such 
industries as sewing, embroidering, and lace-making. Very 



57 

curiously, Ireland is condemned to be a solely agricultural 
country, seeing that in most of her area, and especially in 
the west, the climate is against the crops. Such a brilliant- 
day as we had driving from Ballyshannon to Donegal is 
rare. Far oftener it is as we saw it to day — its hills gray, its 
peat-fields black, its lakes leaden under a leaden sky. It is 
lovely under rain, with all the sad, deep color, and in the dis- 
tance the hills blurred silverly, with an illusion about them 
as if they had swathed their great purple forms in unutter- 
ably lovely webs of gossamer. Often we saw the women 
stooping patiently over the black potato-ridges, sowing the 
potatoes. The men are at work on Mr. Balfour's light rail- 
way, which winds in and out all that road from Donegal to 
Killybegs. It will be opened in June, and will bring Done- 
gal near the markets. It is because of their present absorp- 
tion in field labor that Mr. Gallagher had only embroidered 
cambric handkerchiefs to show us. It is the sparsest time of 
year for his embroideries. At other times he would have 
pillow-shams, bedspreads, doilies, table-centres, and all the 
other delightful things in embroidered linen. The number 
of girls and women he has employed averages 1,500. At a 
busy time it may be 2,000. He pays them about is. 4d. 
a dozen for embroidering an initial letter. They can earn 
about lod. a day at it — a miserable pittance, one thinks; but 
where there are three or four daughters in a family, a little 
gold mine to people as unfamiliar with money as the Done- 
gal peasants. While I was talking with Mr. Gallagher, one 
of his embroideresses came in; a tidily dressed girl, with a. 
gentle Donegal face. They are so gentle, by the by, a 
woman might take a journey, as unprotected as Tom Moore's 
damsel of " Rich and Rare," through Donegal, and meet 
with as exquisite courtesy as in that age of gold. They are 
all charming, from the old women, full of bows and smiles, 
w^ho instruct you on your way with an affectionate hand on 
your arm, and a "You're welcome, indeed! " to the children, 
who, with no eye to backsheesh, trot half a street to sho^v 
you the place you want, turning all the while on you grave 
eyes that disarm in 3^ou the least suspicion of mockery. 
They are not at all shy, those children; only very serious. 
They impart facts in the domestic history of " him " or '' her " 













^ < 



^2 Q 
W U 

^-^ o 
O 

Cd 

z 



59 

you are about to visit, in a shrill Northern accent, which some- 
what baffles the dull comprehension of one unused to it. 
Donegal people all tighten their lips as they speak, to let 
out the pronunciation in that thin Scotch fashion. 

Across the " Diamond " is a shirt agency, where a clever 
young lady from a Derry firm instructs neophytes in the 
shirt-making and receives and gives out work. This indus- 
try does not go very far, for the shirts are only finished 
by the Donegal workers, but it dispenses some ;!!(^io a 
week, and is quite a business-like little traffic. It helps to 
ieep those dove-eyed girls at home amid their hills and in 
the pure air, with its delicious reek of turf-smoke. In their 
Donegal valleys they are safe, though the diet may be low 
and the damp neuralgic. The thought of God is there, and 
the church-bell floats the Angelus over all the stony fields; 
-and there is the simple, human love which is so strong with 
them. Out in the world Sin goes by with roses in her hair, 
and beckoning, beckoning, while here is the guardian angel 
and the innocent lives. Let them stay, in God's name. Their 
hills are safest and happiest. 

Meanwhile the country, so cruelly ungrateful to the tiller, 
is bursting with mineral wealth, and many other resources. 
Stony capital, somewhere in a foreign city, has locked all 
this away from the people. A coal mine is sold unworked 
to an English company that will not have its monopoly 
interfered with; a copper mine is elsewhere under these 
rocky surfaces. The rosy salmon are for a London market. 
The harbours are empty and half-choked by the shifting 
sands. 

At Killybegs we found Mr. Neil McLoone, one of the 
principal buyers of the homespuns. His very insufficient 
store is piled high with them in various degrees of color and 
finish. One beautiful stuff is a soft, fleecy gray, with a blue 
line in it. The whole piece of this was going to an English 
marquis. Mr. McLoone's son goes out in the wide world for 
orders, not only to Dublin and London, but to Paris and the 
Continent. We have a card of his couched in elegant 
French: ^' Mmiufacturier de Tweeds, files et tisses a domi- 
cile, faits de couleurs naturelles et de couleurs teintes d, domi- 
cile !' Presently, when the light railroad is working, I sup- 



60 

pose Mr. McLoone's facilities will be much improved. He, 
with the brothers Magee and Mr. Xeil McXelis of Ardara, 
are the principal buyers. These homespun woollens is the 
industry of Donegal that is, at present, most on a business 
basis, and deserves to be, for anything more genuine in the 
way of manufacture could not well be imagined. Your Don- 
egal weaver has not yet advanced to the knowledge of 
shoddy. 

Between Kilh'begs and Kilcar, and in all the mountains 
along the seaboard, the sprigging industry is carried on — a 
poor industry, dying hard from starvation. It was on the 
drive we began to realize the misery of the Donegal peas- 
ants. The}' ask the earth for bread, and for answer she 
gives them a stone. Xo one can realize those stones unless 
he has first seen them. Frequently a mountain-side is so 
serried with their battalions, that man has retired hopelessly 
from the contest. Yet in seemingly the most awful deserts 
there are sparse spaces of black plowed land — plowed and 
harrowed by those patient men and women — while the 
boulders that forced themselves to the surface have been 
piled by an infinite amount of labor into stone ditches, as 
the loose wall of stones is called. Yet amid the black earth 
the gaunt, gray monsters lift themselves, and claim what 
is their own, what has been desert, and will be desert, 
despite that puny creature, man, his labour and his sweat. In 
Donegal nearly all those peasants walk with bent backs like 
very old men, while the old men! oh, they have long forgot- 
ten to be straight, and toil away, with figures as unnaturally 
bent as some of those distorted bushes b}" the seashore, 
blown all one way and into gnarled age by the steady whip 
of the sea- winds. Those stony fields impress the visitor 
more than am^thing. Xow and then the hopelessly sterile 
have been walled off, and are the receptacles of some of the 
overflow of their neighbors. Such fields! Coming from 
Dublin County and its rich land, one wondered indeed at the 
squalid spaces — about the size of 3'our table-cloth, dear 
madam. By the roadside were enormous rocks that one 
would have deemed it past the strength of man to lift from 
the earth. Everywhere was the same arid depopulation — 
the only sign of life a crooked figure in the fields, or a 



61 

cabin in which it is a crying shame for God's imag-e to be 
housed. 

Kilcar is at the foot of one of those steep mountain-roads. 
It is the center of the sprigging industry for those parts. 
Mrs. Gallagher and her daughter Mary give out the hand- 
kerchiefs and other things for the embroidering, and pay for 
the work. Their little shop would make a delightful genre 
picture. The dainty purity that was in the cap and apron 
of the old woman was mirrored in everything in the shop, 
down to the show placards of grocers and purveyors, for 
this was a general shop, as well as a sprigging agency. 
The goods, patterned, arrive in great heaps from the Belfast 
wholesale house, to which the goods are consigned. So 
there is no picking up of bargains in the Doneg'al Mount- 
ains. The Belfast firm does not pay as well as Mr. Galla- 
gher of Donegal, who has a special market for the sprigged 
goods. They are paid for so miserably, indeed, that a good 
sprigger can only earn a shilling a week! The old story of 
the McKinley tarifE shutting the goods from the American 
markets, for not long ago sprigging was a tremendous indus- 
try here. Where the agency nowadays pays a beggarly 
ten-pound note among these myriad mountains and glens, 
it was formerly a thousand. If prayers can obtain the repeal 
of the McKinley tariff, I feel sure the Donegal peasants will 
bring it about. 

At Kilcar one can see that majestic monster Slieve Liag 
extending its mighty human face into the clouds. It is 
nearly always a phantom of the mists, for the clouds stoop 
low and trail upon it, swathing its awfulness as it lies recum- 
hent upon the plain like a great dead god, whose fighting is 
over and whose apotheosis is to lie forever in so splendid a 
state. Down near its base are the curing-stations of Teelin, 
established by the Congested Districts Board. This board 
makes roads and advances money for boat-buying and house- 
building; it even seeks to improve the cocks and hens of the 
district by the importation of a new strain — less hardy, say 
the people, who do not yet understand the importance of 
improving the standard of the poultry, if they are to be 
looked to as a permanent source of profit. Those curing- 
stations for the fish are a great boon, and things need not be 



62 

so bad in those places and at those times that the men are 
engaged in the fishing. But Donegal fishing, like the sum- 
mer tourist, is a variable quantity. Fishing, except in the 
really settled weather, is out of the question. Visit the 
superb Muckros caves, two miles from Kilcar, and in a brill- 
iant day of soft sunshine you will be able to imagine what 
the winter storms are like. If you are startled now at the 
mighty creatures, arching themselves in all their green, shin- 
ing length for a spring, what will it be in winter when the 
sea rises, literally, mountains high — and climbing pillar and 
wall and roof of the caves, that are like new rock temples of 
the East — swarms up the land, high into the farmers' fields 
that are yet strewn with sea-shells. Sea-weed, too, was high 
in the fields, and we came upon them drying it for manure. 
At the farmer's house there we saw the spinning-wheel, an. 
implement that would excite unbounded admiration in a 
Belgravian drawing-room, especially with a lovely head, 
above it, a lovely hand placing the threads, and a foot " like 
the new moon," as Coventry Patmore says, deftly moving to- 
and fro. It would not be easy, however, to surpass the farmer's 
daughter, with her graceful, smooth, brown head, her gray 
eyes with their sky-bright glances, and the softly blushing 
cheeks. All the women here who do not sprig, spin in their 
off moments. The day we were at Muckros, however, they 
were cutting seed-potatoes in the farm-house kitchen, and 
the old mother kept a chronically discontented look because 
surprised out of the usual tidiness of the house place. Car- 
rick lies under the shadow of Slieve Liag, which, as we 
drove in the dusk, was wreathed in soaring mists. There is 
a very fine and tolerably expensive hotel at Carrick. No 
doubt if one sought health or pleasure in this exquisite vale, 
it would not be difficult to find a lodging in the village or in 
an adjacent farm-house. At Carrick there is a fairly flour- 
ishing woolen industry, like all Donegal industries somewhat 
in need of extension and fostering. The Donegal peasants 
are quick and expert knitters. There is an agency in Carrick 
which distributes and receives work for a wholesale merchant, 
Mr. Patterson of London. The knitted goods are chiefly for 
ladies and children — combinations, petticoats, combined 
bodices and skirts, children's gloves, gaiters, woolen boots^ 



63 

etc. We saw several rooms piled high with the goods, and 
beautiful goods they are. 

Very often there are two colors used; blue and pink, pink 
and white, pink and gray, make charming mixtures. The 
women knit so rapidly that they take only two days to a, 
petticoat, and correspondingly little time to the other things. 
This agency pays from ^lo to ;^i2 pounds a week among 
the poor people about Carrick. But after all, even supposing 
them full of work — an impossible thing, perhaps, where there 
is so little work to be given and so many able and willing^ 
hands stretched out for it — the best of them all could not 
earn more than 4 shillings a week or so. The parish priest 
of Carrick has the usual tale of the people's abject poverty, 
though the next priest will tell you how much better off 
Carrick is, because of its fishing station, than his poor parish. 

The next parish to Carrick — or the next priest to the 
P. P. of Carrick, rather — was the curate of Glencolumbkille. 
The Glen Head is one of the sights of Donegal, so I suppose- 
many tourists come in contact with the heart-rending pov- 
erty of Glencolumbkille. All about the valley, under the- 
magnificent bold Head, lie the scattered little cottages, cling- 
ing to the mountain-side like a starling's nest under the 
eaves. From this priest, a cultivated and refined gentleman 
who stood out in lonely prominence amid his poor flock, we 
heard the old miserable famine cry. They have eaten their 
seed-potatoes in Glencolumbkille, and there are none to put 
into the unyielding earth. Last season was one of many wet 
and cold, and the potatoes rotted in the earth. Those that 
were saved had to be eaten. They were sprigging in the 
cottages at their shilling a week. Up in the glen a weaver, 
a haggard-faced, handsome man, was plying his old-fashioned 
cumbrous loom in a Rembrandt-like interior, dark with the 
turf smoke. At the window his wife sat and spun, her brown 
head and crimson-shawled shoulders outlined against the 
little square. They have just one alleviation of hardship in 
Donegal — fuel is always in plenty. But half the cottages 
have no chimney — just a hole in the thatch to let the smoke 
through, and all the four winds that blo\y pufE the smoke 
back into the cabins. This weaver's 5^arn was black with the 
turf smoke. How he was to brine his webs to the Ardara. 



64 

market on the first of the month, clean and saleable, baffled 
one's comprehension. They showed ns in this cottage the 
moss from which they make one of their dyes, the crottle, to 
give it the phonetic spelling. I have said moss, but it is 
rather a lichen which grows on the rocks by the sea. Another 
dye which gives streaks of brown and orange is made by 
boiling the heather; yet a third from steeping the stuffs in 
iDog water impregnated with iron, as is so much water in 
Donegal. The peat, so impregnated, used to be an industry. 
It was used in gas-works for some purpose or other. Of late 
years Germany, importing something cheaper, has beaten it 
out of the market, but there are signs of its reviv-al, they say. 
The dye made from the red ironized bog water is called 
diibacJita. Kelp-gathering, too, is something of an industry 
on this coast, but a poor and precarious one. 

I suppose the Glen Head must rise nearly 2,000 feet. It 
"will remain with one as a memor)^, the majestic scenery and 
the poor human hives below. These cotters, like the rest of 
the people of the Donegal Highlands, are descendants of the 
native Irish, driven hither from the fertile plains at the time 
of the Ulster plantations. They and their children paid 
■dearly, God knows, for faith and country. 

We left our poor young priest there, with his intellect and 
aspirations, lonely in a scene of beauty to make one melan- 
choly mad, and with the people's hunger knocking at his 
Tieart. The drive from Glencolumbkille, past the pillar 
stones where the saint made his stations, and up and down 
the great chain of mountains that intersect Donegal at this 
point, is full of wild beauty. Now you are climbing a mount- 
ain-side by a road, one side of which is walled with rock, the 
other sheer precipice; again you are flying down the other 
side, having topped the summit by a causeway of road sus- 
pended high above the stony bog. Clattering down one such 
road, we saw a sight that made us hold our breath. The 
great hills, near and distant, were in gold and silver haze, and 
though to us the sun was invisible, he was streaming from 
some rift straight upon them in belts of rosy fire, stretching 
for miles across flank and summit. As we drove on, the rosy 
wonder resolved itself into mere sunshine that seemed in 
•comparison poor and prosaic. 



65 

Not far from Ardara, after crossing a great stretch of 
barren moorland, one crests the brow of a hill and descends 
into the incomparably magnificent Glengeish. I am quite 
sure that the world can have no glen more lovely. The 
path goes down as down the side of a house, winding slowly 
beneath cliffs that rise each side from 1,200 to 1,800 feet. A 
singing stream brawls over stones far down, and is fed by a 
hundred rivulets that wind in and out in little cascades 
and shallow pools down the mountain-side. I can not imagine 
people going to Switzerland while there is Glengeish in 
Donegal. 

Ardara is the great market for the cloth. Like all the 
Donegal villages, it climbs down one hill and up another. 
In Ardara the great authority on the weaving is Mr. Neil 
McNelis of the hotel, the principal buyer in this district. 
You will see the stuffs here, rough or silky, all in soft, har- 
monious colors and delightful to the touch. The weavers in 
Donegal are sorely hampered by the old looms they are so 
conservative about abandoning. Many and many a web of 
cloth they spoil, and one can not but believe that the young 
men would be glad to abandon the unchancy things for 
something better if they but had the opportunity. 

In Ardara we saw also some of the stockings for which 
the district is famous. Glenties is the centre for the stock- 
ing-knitting, and there there is an immense trade in them 
done by the brothers McDevitt. We missed inspecting 
Messrs. McDevitt's stores and stock by the accident of our 
passing through Glenties on a Sunday; but the gloves and 
stockings we saw at Mr. Kennedy's of Ardara were of the 
same kind, all beautifully knitted and of the most recent 
colors and patterns. 

At Ardara we heard, too, of an industry fast dying out. 
This is the weaving of a mixture of linen and woolen for 
•ladies' dresses, the result of which was described to us so 
enthusiastically that we could scarcely help feeling a great 
desire to see the gowns so eloquently described. It seems at 
present to be made only at Downstrand, or Narin, on the 
seashore, and is not offered for sale, though the country 
gentry often make use of it. Ardara, by Glenties to Dungloe, 
is a repetition of the scenery of cliffs and stony crags, except- 

5 



66 

ing that when one has climbed the steep hill from Dooras 
Bridge and got on the long moorland road that runs five or 
six miles to Dungloe, one is in the midst of a chain of beauti- 
ful lakes. They are on each side of the bog road, now little 
and solitary, again widening to embrace many little islands. 
In Dungloe again they have the stockings, supplemented by 
jerseys for fishermen and others, and of course the inevitable 
gloves. In Dungloe, Sweeneys of the Hotel are large 
employers, and are quite ready to show their stock to any 
one interested. Miss Sweeney told us the people are very 
quick in devising patterns for the knittings, taking the 
squares and diamonds of wall-papers, tiles, or anything else 
that may come their w^ay. Some of the stockings are well 
paid for, the best at 3s. 4d. a pair; and as an expert knitter can 
knit a stocking in a day, the work, if there were sufficient 
demand, would be very paying. 

Between Dungloe and Gweedore one comes on the stony 
territory of the Rosses, where Miss Roberts carries on her 
knitting industries, which employ so many workers, and which 
are largely sold by the Irish Industries Association. It is 
hard to imagine without seeing it the great aridity of this 
desert. It seems little enough peopled, unlike Gweedore, 
which is a perfect hive of cabins. It, too, is mainly 
composed of great slabs of stone, covering their acres, 
with pathetic bits of tillage running up against the great boul- 
ders. It is at Gweedore one sees the little fields. A good- 
sized pocket-handkerchief would cover some of them. The 
glen, however, from end to end, and it must be man)^ miles 
in extent, overflows with people, and the houses are cleanly 
white-washed. They pasture through the glen little lean 
cattle, and hardy, clever mountain-sheep that are as much at 
home among the dogs and the children as is the pig in other 
parts of Ireland. They are a very tall and handsome race 
-up at Gweedore, with straight, regular features and much 
dignity of look. The women of the North are delightfully 
clean — quite shining in their frilled caps — and they nearly 
all wear the scarlet petticoats which make them look so 
picturesque out in the fields. All the women were out in 
the fields as we went through the country. I believe there is 
horrible poverty really in Gweedore, but there is great 



67 

purity of living. Whisky is little known. The priest, who 
is king of Gweedore, and I really believe the one responsible 
for sheltering all those chickens under the wing of their 
mountains, has warred on the whisky so determinedly that 
it has all but disappeared. Gweedore people live by their 
little cattle, their sheep, the potatoes, and the fishing. It 
is near here, at Bunbeg, that Mrs. Ernest Hart has her fac- 
tory and technical school, and the headquarters of the various 
operations of the well-known Donegal Industrial Fund. In 
the cottages there are few industries — the only one with 
any vitality is the eternal knitting. They won't change their 
knitting for anything else, those conservative folk. They 
may be artistic as to their own particular pursuit, but turn 
them to any other and they are, perhaps willfully, dull. 
There are a few old weavers in the glen, about a dozen in 
all; but they only work for the country people. This is all 
there is of. cottage industries. The one who knows them 
and their needs best says: "Give them a market in their 
midst first of all — such a market as Ardara, for example. 
Then give them some communication with the outer world. 
A light railway would be a gift from heaven. If they had 
the market all Gweedore would be a-whirr with the spin- 
ning-wheel, the loom, and the click of the needles. And such 
a one as Coll of Bunbeg need not be sitting idle, with his 
four looms hidden away and his five braw weaver-sons doing 
farm labor in Scotland." He says his case is the same as 
that of all the old weavers in the glen. It is all pitiable. 
Here they are so ready for work — work, not charity, good 
folk! 

After Donegal one ceases to wonder at the supremacy of 
the priests among the Irish peasants. In such places as Col- 
umbkille and Gweedore, what would they be without their 
priests ? Leaves blown before the storm — sheep shepherd- 
less in such a snow as buries these mountains. 

On the priest's bookshelves you will often see law and 
medicine by the side of his theology. He is the real friend 
to them, and all the world outside the careless and iinreal. 



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